11" Small Satchel

I have been looking to upgrade my tobacco pipe travel bag. I searched around, here and there. Did multiple searches on Amazon, different materials, styles ect. I really wanted leather. So I narrowed my search. This bag kept popping up in various searches so I decided on it.I'm glad I did! It's a perfect fit for my pipes and accessories with a little extra room for more.It's REAL LEATHER .....Leather is tanned ....The tanning process stinks. The bag has been wrapped up in a box on a warehouse shelf since it was made...Once you unwrap it, it'll stunk for a couple of days. Then it'll smell like the awesome leather that it is.In the picture I have the following...mind you, it all fit easily with room for more.3 tins of pipe tobacco, 2 pouches of pipe cleaners, 5 tobacco pipes, a baggie of 6mm and 9mm filters, a baggie with a hunk of beeswax, 6 pipe nail tampers and a match vault. It could easily fit 3 more tins and 2 or 3 more pipes.I like the quality of the hardware ( buckles and fasteners) The shoulder strap is nice and long with perfect amount of adjustment .....it's sewn AND riveted.Great bag....fit my needs to the T

Better quality than I expected, lots of room for my stuff; books, notepad, Bible, water bottle, phone gear and more. It smells like leather, as to be expected and I plan to use some leather conditioner on it once it has a few miles. I use this bag, instead of a back pack to attend meetings and for casual outings.

This messenger bag is sturdy and well made. The stitching is strong and even. The main straps have metal devices on the buckles that snap into metal loops on the body of the bag; that means that to open and close the main compartment of the bag it isn't necessary to unbuckle the straps. One can just press the snap devices and release those, without moving the buckles. I mention that especially because I didn't notice it when I first looked at this bag on Amazon. I was going to reject this bag because of the hassle of having to buckle and unbuckle the straps any time I wanted to open it. You don't have to do that.The small compartment attached to the front of the bag doesn't have such a snap in device, so you do have to buckle it and unbuckle it.The bag has more compartments than was at first apparent. Many options to carry your stuff. If fully extended the sides are four inches deep, so fully stuffed the bag has a large capacity.It is made of stiff leather which is fairly heavy. In my opinion this is proper since a softer, more luxurious garment leather wouldn't hold up to the abuse that a briefcase is likely to get. If you want to soften it and preserve it a good leather conditioner would help; you should probably do that anyway since real leather can dry out and even sometimes crack when it gets old.Someone else mentioned that the bag smells. It does; it smells like the tanning chemicals, I think. Personally I don't find the odor to be very strong on my particular bag.I am downrating this item by one star because of what I consider a minor design flaw. The main straps appear to be longer than could ever be necessary even if the bag is fully stuffed. I suppose this might be used to strap something to the front of the bag, under the straps, but anything so held wouldn't be secure. As it is the overlong straps are going to dangle and get in the way. One could trim them, but they are stitched all the way around the edges- a nice detail- so of course I don't want to do that.All in all a very nice piece of luggage. I like it and I expect I'll get a lot of use out of it.

Shopping leather shops this bag would be substantially more expensive. Heck even a nylon bag to carry my Surface Go would be around this price.Yeah it stinks when you first get it. When I took mine out of the plastic bag, it stunk of chemical smell, almost like an adhesive chemical. I let it air out for a few days before using it and that's when I could finally smell the leather smell (which doesn't turn me off), today I left it in my office for 40 minutes while at lunch with the door closed, when I returned the whole office had that leather smell.This satchel fits my Surface Go with type cover attached nice and snug in the padded pocket, the charger, a pill carrying case, an insulin meter case, insulin syringes and bottle and a few little extras. So it holds all that I need to carry around with me all the time.The reason that I bought this was the first image for the product that is showing it EXTREMELY distressed and worn. I had hoped the new ones would be a bit more towards that kind of wear and distress level but they're not, they look like brand new leather product as stiff as can be. This is a bit surprising as the thin leather is lined with a seemingly canvas type of material but apparently that canvas stuff is stiff.Overall, if I needed a second one, I'd probably buy this again.Pros: If the first image is true, this is going to look fabulous once it's fully broken in, and should accommodate a tiny bit more stuff inside.It holds what I need it to hold.Cons:The shoulder strap is not removable, I will hardly ever use it and even on the shortest loop it pretty much drags on the ground. I will remedy this by taking it to a leather tailor and have them cut it off and put clasps on the end of the shoulder strap so that I can put it on when I want and take it off the rest of the time.The handle is a tiny bit too narrow. I can get my hand through it but it's a squeeze.The straps have no quick release, they are true buckles and it takes a bit of use on each hole to get them to slightly enlarge to fit the prong on the buckle.The buckles themselves are a bit stiff. When trying to move the prong away you can only move it so far and that isn't enough so it tends to catch on the strap as you're pulling it out of the buckle.It's got some pockets that are not very useable when new for me, inside there is a padded pocket and a main pocket and a zippered pocket. The satchel is so stiff when new that I can barely slide my fingers into the zippered pocket when my bag is full. I believe this would have been so much more accessible had they put it on the back outside. However when the bag gets fully worn in, it should be more accommodating to insert a few things into the zippered inside pocket.The shoulder strap holder is too loose and regularly slides off where it's holding the excess strap and then you have a flapping shoulder strap unless you use it on it's longest position. I think this can be rectified by just getting a cloth and pair of pliers and squeezing down on the strap holder just a tiny bit, just a tiny bit so that it's tighter when holding the excess strap but not so tight that it mars the leather.The leather is extremely thin, but this may actually turn into a pro if it breaks in nicely and becomes super soft and supple.So far, good bag especially for the price.

Great messenger bagReal leather, and my laptop fits perfectly.